Brass Medallion
A keychain medallion portraying symbols meaningful to my life.
While the rowing side more clearly relates to the impact that rowing has had on my life, the front side is less obvious. I chose a rosette design to reflect my love of botany and gardening as well as to signify the importance of faith in my life, as the rosette is a common design in cathedrals and churches.
Manufacturing the medallion was relatively straightforward. I used Solidworks to create both designs and as an exercise wrote the gcode manually, line by line, rather than using CAM. I milled the medallion on a Haas VF1 in the Stanford Product Realization Lab before sanding down to 1000 grit on both sides.
Aluminum-Wood Maze
I enjoy rowing and spending time on the water and wanted to create a maze that would evoke a nautical compass.
After deciding on this design I used Solidworks and HSMWorks to CAD and CAM the profile. Four different mills and two drills were used to cut the form on a Haas OM2 in the Stanford Product Realization Lab.
I then secured the maze in a mahogany case that I had made earlier and fastened a clear acrylic cover using brass screws to contain the ball bearing.
Shakespearean Bottle Opener
With this bottle-opener I aspired to evoke the scene from Shakespeare’s Macbeth where Macbeth suffers a vision of a bloody dagger as he goes to kill Duncan.
The blade, tang and pins are formed of 303 stainless steel while the handle is made with bloodwood. The blade and tang were CADed and CAMed using Solidworks and HSMWorks and machined on a Haas VF1.
The bottle-opener has two bottle opening mechanisms in the handle but could also slice off bottle tops when sharpened.
“Is this a dagger which I see before me?” -Macbeth
NinjaSlice 3D Printer and Enclosure
NinjaSlice 3D is a self-contained 3D printer and enclosure modeled after the popular Prusa i3 and its many clones. I created this 3D printer to enable rapid prototyping in my design work and to exercise my design, machining, and electronics skills.
The printer consists of over twenty machined parts while the enclosure uses eight machined parts to create a frame for the siding and doors. Both the printer and enclosure parts were machined from 6061 aluminum using a Haas VF1 in the Stanford Product Realization Lab.
The enclosure siding comprises fire-resistant, insulating PVC, which ensures consistent temperature and air flow to improve print quality while providing fire resistance and insulation. The enclosure is finished with a mahogany veneer.
For a description of electronics modifications made to NinjaSlice, please see the Electronics page